TRIPOLI: Soldiers sought to put down unrest in Libya’s second city on Friday and opposition forces said they were fighting troops for control of a nearby town after crackdowns which Human Rights Watch said killed 24 people.
Protests inspired by the revolts that brought down long-serving rulers of neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia have led to violence unprecedented in Muammar Gaddafi’s 41 years as leader of the oil exporting country.
The New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch said that according to its sources inside Libya, security forces had killed at least 24 people over the past two days. Exile groups have given much higher tolls which could not be confirmed.
Opponents of Gaddafi had designated Thursday a day of rage to try to emulate uprisings sweeping through North Africa and the Middle East. Unrest continued well into the night.
The demonstrations have been focused in the country’s east, including its second largest city, Benghazi, where support for Gaddafi has been historically weaker than in the rest of the country. The area is largely cut-off from international media.
The privately-owned Quryna newspaper, based in Benghazi, said security forces overnight fired live bullets at protesters, killing 14 of them. It published photographs of several people lying on hospital stretchers with bloodstained bandages.
Two Swiss-based exile groups said anti-government forces, joined by defecting police, were battling with security forces for control of the town of Al Bayda, 200 km northeast of Benghazi and scene of deadly clashes this week.
A opposition activist in Al Bayda told Reuters the town was calm after the burial of 14 people killed in Thursday’s protests. “A massacre took place here yesterday,” said the man. Two people in Benghazi told Reuters that Saadi Gaddafi, a son of the Libyan leader, had taken over command of the city.
Ashour Shamis, a London-based Libyan journalist, said protesters had stormed Benghazi’s Kuwafiyah prison on Friday and freed dozens of political prisoners. Quryna said 1,000 prisoners had escaped and 150 had been recaptured.
The capital Tripoli has been calmer, with Gaddafi supporters staging demonstrations of their own. The leader appeared in the early hours of Friday briefly at Green Square in the centre of Tripoli, surrounded by crowds of supporters. He did not speak.
In Washington, US President Barack Obama urged the governments of Bahrain, Libya and Yemen on Friday to show restraint in dealing with protests that have erupted in their countries. “I am deeply concerned by reports of violence in Bahrain, Libya and Yemen. The United States condemns the use of violence against peaceful protesters in those countries, and wherever else it may occur,” the president said in a statement read to reporters by White House press secretary Jay Carney.
“The United States urges the governments of Bahrain, Libya and Yemen to show restraint in responding to peaceful protests and to respect the rights of their people,” Obama said.
But it was Bahrain’s crackdown on protesters, in defiance of US calls for restraint, that posed a fresh dilemma for the Obama administration. Bahraini security forces shot at protesters in the capital Manama on Friday, wounding at least 23 people, a former Shia lawmaker said. Four people were killed and hundreds wounded on Thursday when riot police raided a protest camp. As details of the latest violence emerged, Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa promised to open a national dialogue once calm returns.
Security forces in countries including Libya and Bahrain have used illegal and excessive force in response to the legitimate demands of their people, the top UN human rights official charged on Friday.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 19th, 2011.
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